It is known that, in operation of electrolytic melting baths for aluminium production, the burnt-out or spent carbon anodes, which are present as residual anodes on the anode rods, must be removed from the furnaces and replaced by new anodes from time-to-time. The hot anode rods together with the hot residual anodes must be cooled before the residual anodes can be stripped off the nipples of the anode rods and these anode rods, possibly after reprocessing, can be fitted with new carbon anodes. In the past, the anode rods together with residual anodes removed from the melting furnaces have been cooled by being laid down in the furnace hall. Since the cooling operation is accompanied by considerable gas emission from the hot residual anodes, this leads to considerable air pollution and thus to harmful effects upon the personnel working in the furnace hall. Furthermore, long cooling times occur, so that the reprocessing of the anodes and anode rods can be carried out only with considerable delay.
An object of the present invention therefore is to provide an apparatus, by which the consumed anodes taken from the hot melting furnaces, as well as their anode rods, can be effectively cooled considerably more rapidly and without environmental pollution due to gas emissions in the furnace hall.